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Directions for the Preparation and Submission of Departmental Honors Theses
In 1966, the faculty of Albion College established the Departmental Honors thesis as a way for students to gain special academic recognition from their major department. By action of the faculty in 1976, the responsibility for Departmental Honors was assigned to the Honors Director and the Honors Committee. Students who successfully complete a Departmental Honors thesis graduate with "Departmental Honors." The Honors Committee, with the approval of the Educational Policy Committee, has established the following guidelines for Departmental Honors.
A. Getting Started1. To write a thesis for consideration for Departmental Honors, students must normally have an academic average of 3.0 or higher in their major department. Students whose academic average is lower than 3.0, but whose work promises a thesis of Honors quality may petition the Honors Committee through their department for permission to compete for Honors.
2. Students who decide to write a Departmental Honors thesis must submit a Thesis Registry Form (see page 10) to the Honors Director no later than September 30 of their senior year if they plan to graduate either in May or August. For December graduation the corresponding deadline is February 28. On the form, students must indicate the tentative title of their thesis and obtain the signatures of each of their thesis committee members.
3. Each Departmental Honors thesis committee must consist of at least two department members: a primary thesis advisor and at least one additional reader.
B. Department and Student Thesis Responsibilities1. Your thesis must be reviewed in progress and in final form by your entire thesis committee. It is your responsibility to work with all members of your thesis committee, not just your thesis advisor, and to keep all committee members informed of your progress by meeting with and regularly submitting to them written drafts of your work for comments and suggestions.
2. Your individual department will have the responsibility for supervising all work potentially leading to Departmental Honors.
3. Your department will establish the criteria, special regulations, and evaluation procedures to be used for Departmental Honors work.
4. Your department will establish the bibliographic form and the thesis format.
5. The primary responsibility for the evaluation of the Honors Thesis rests with your department (or your individually-designed major committee.) For spring semester graduation, its recommendation will be forward to the Honors Committee for final approval no later than April 1.[1] If you have a disagreement with the evaluation, this should be put in writing and submitted to the Honors Director no later than April 1.1
6. If credit is given for work on the thesis during the semester of graduation, the grade will represent an evaluation of the final product. A minimum grade of 3.0 is required for the thesis to be acceptable for Departmental Honors. If the grade is lower than 3.0, the units involved will be treated simply as units toward graduation and you will not receive Departmental Honors.
7. If no thesis credit is given during the semester of graduation, the departmental thesis committee will forward its recommendation to the Honors Director by April 1,1 in the form of "acceptable" or "unacceptable" for Departmental Honors.
8. If thesis credit is given prior to the graduation semester, evaluation may be in the form of either a numerical grade for the work accomplished during that semester or a grade of P (work in progress) if it is not possible to evaluate the research project until its completion.
9. The only deadlines that the Honors Committee is concerned with are for the submission of the finished thesis (see section C 1 below). Any other deadlines necessary for evaluation of your progress or for departmental approval are to be established by the individual department.
10. Departments are encouraged to find an off-campus reviewer for each thesis. When this is done, the reviewer's comments will be only for your personal benefit and will not be part of the "acceptance" aspect of the thesis.
C. Final Deadlines and Requirements1. There are two deadlines that students must observe in submitting a finished Departmental Honors thesis for spring graduation. a. First, by 5 p.m. on April 11 or the first working day thereafter, you must submit to the Honors Coordinator a copy of your Thesis Approval Form (see page 8 below) with the signatures of your committee members. The Coordinator’s office is located on the second floor of the Observatory.
b. Second, by 5 p.m. on April 7[2] or the first working day thereafter, you must submit at least two final copies of the thesis to the Honors Coordinator.
2. The thesis submitted to the Honors Committee for final approval must be in final form, free of typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. Any thesis that does not meet these standards will be returned, and, if the April 7 deadline has passed, will be rejected.
3. You are strongly encouraged to present the results of your thesis at Albion's annual Elkin Isaac Research Symposium.
D. Postponing Graduation to Complete a ThesisIf you have enough units to graduate in May (December) but are unable to meet the April 1 (December 1) deadline for completion of your Departmental Honors thesis, you may elect to postpone your graduation for one semester in order to complete your thesis, provided that you:
1. obtain the written permission of your thesis committee and submit it to the Honors Director in a timely manner. A form for this purpose is available from the Honors Coordinator.
2. complete your thesis no later than the following August (April), if you complete all your other graduation requirements in May (December). You will then graduate with Departmental Honors after the Summer (Spring) semester.
3. enroll for ½ units of thesis writing credit for this final semester.
E. Thesis Writing Mechanics
Beyond the general guidelines above, you must follow these
additional instructions in preparing two copies of your final
draft for submission to the Honors Committee. 1. Wordprocessing. The thesis must be typed on a personal computer using word processing software so that the final draft can be printed on a laser printer. Personal computers and software that are adequate for this purpose are available in all computer laboratories on campus. The Instructional Technology office, in the basement of Stockwell Library, provides instruction for both beginners and advanced users on special word processing features that are particularly useful for writing a thesis.
2. Typeface. The text of the thesis must be printed in a clearly readable 12-point typeface. Exotic forms of type, such as “script,” are not acceptable.
3. Paper and Printing. The first two copies of the thesis submitted to the Honors Committee must be laser printed on good quality acid-free paper. You may obtain this paper from the Honors Coordinator whose office is located on the second floor of the Observatory. Any of the high-speed laser printers located in the computer labs or department offices on campus is of sufficient quality for printing your final thesis copies. 4.
Color Printing. The Instructional Technology (IT)
office has a color laser printer
a. contact the IT office well ahead of time
to set up an appointment by sending an
b. work with an Instructional Technologist to do the actual
printing (you can't just
5. Figures and Graphs. Figures, graphs, and illustrations may be created using computer drawing software and laser printed along with the rest of the thesis or may be drawn directly by hand on the same acid-free paper used in the rest of the thesis. If figures are hand drawn, photocopies of the original illustrations may be used for the second thesis copy submitted to the Honors Committee but the originals of all figures, graphs and illustrations must be included with the first copy. This original will be bound at library expense and will become a permanent part of the Albion College Library's Collection. The second copy will be bound at the expense of the Honors Institute and permanently housed in the Honors Center Library.
6. Binding Personal Thesis Copies. You may have one or more additional copies of your thesis bound for your personal use. The first personal copy submitted will be hard-bound free of charge. Additional copies will be bound at cost (as of this writing $3.50 for comb binding and $10 for hardcover binding). All binding costs must be paid in advance. If you graduate in May and your personal thesis copies are submitted by the April 7 deadline, they will be back from the bindery and distributed to you before graduation. If you submit your personal copies for binding later than April 7 or for December or August graduation, they will be returned to you by mail.
7. Title and Thesis Approval Pages. You must follow the required form for the title page and for the two approval sheets. Samples of these pages are provided on pages 7-9.
8. Margins. Carefully observe all margins: 1½ inches at the left, 1 inch on the top, bottom and right. A top margin of 1½ inches must be used for the first page of the text, and for pages beginning new sections or chapters. Make sure all graphs and figures are drawn or reduced by a photocopier so they fall within these same text margins.
9. Page Numbering. a.
Begin separate sections or chapters on a new page, unless your
thesis
b. Assign a number to each page, even though a number might not
appear on that
c. Use lowercase roman numerals (e.g., ii or iv) for all
pages preceding the main d. Use Arabic numbers for the main text.
10. Line Spacing. Double space the text throughout except for long quotations, or in the case of tables and figures where a discipline's customary writing style so allows.
11. Other Questions. Any other technical questions concerning the acceptability of the production of the two final thesis copies submitted to the Honors Committee should be discussed in advance with the Honors Director.
12. Writing Guides. Finally, remember that a high standard of accuracy and clarity in written expression is expected. When in doubt about style or form, consult with your thesis advisor and/or a standard manual of style such as A Manual for Writers, Turabian; Harbrace's College Handbook, or The MLA Style Sheet.
F. Final Thesis Submission Procedures1. Each of the thesis copies that you submit for binding must be enclosed in a separate manila envelope. These envelopes may be picked up from the Honors Coordinator.
2. On each thesis envelope in the upper left hand corner, write your name, copy number (#1, # 2, # 3, etc.), and binding instructions (hardcover or comb bound). Copy #1 is required. It goes to the Library and must be on acid‑free paper. Copy #2 is required. It goes to the Honors Thesis library and must be on acid‑free paper. Copies #1 and #2 will be hard bounded at the college's own expense. Copies #3 and beyond are optional and are for your own purposes. They may be on any kind of paper you wish. We will bind them for you and, when they are ready, return them to you or to whomever you designate on each envelope.
3. Print one extra copy of your cover page. Place one on the outside of your personal copies group and the second on the outside of the Library/Honors group. (Note that your title page must contain your first, middle and last names.) The original cover pages should be placed inside the envelopes.
4. The
copies of your thesis for the Library and for the Honors
Institute must contain the
a. Make sure that your committee members have signed the first
Thesis Approval
b. You do not need to gather the signatures of the
Academic Dean or the Honors
5. You must pick up a Library Release Form from the Honors Coordinator, fill it out, and include it as the last page of your Library copy of your Thesis. This form gives or denies the Library permission to make copies, in part or in whole, of your thesis for scholarly purposes.
6. Be sure to double check each thesis to make sure that all pages, including title, approval, diagram and text pages are in the correct order.
7. Remember to bring a check or exact cash to pay for your personal thesis binding costs at the time you turn your thesis in to the Honors Coordinator.
[SAMPLE TITLE PAGE. The margins for the title page must be as follows: left margin 1½ inches, right margin 1 inch, top margin 2½ inches. For the bottom margin, the words “Albion College” must appear 3 inches from the bottom of the page.]
CENTER TITLE IN CAPS (If title has more than one line, double space between lines.) (4 spaces)
A Thesis submitted for Honors in “Department” (4 spaces)
Your Complete Name
April 1, 2006 (2 spaces)
Albion College [SAMPLE APPROVAL SHEET NUMBER ONE. The margins for this approval sheet must be as follows: left margin 1½ inches, right margin 1 inch, top margin 2½ inches.]
Doe, John. Thin-layered chromatographic analysis of amino-acid derivatives. (2 spaces)
This certifies that the thesis here submitted to the Honors Committee has been supervised and read critically by the undersigned who recommend that the thesis be accepted for Departmental Honors in (your department). (3 spaces)
___________________________________ Dr. Jane Smith, Thesis Advisor Professor of XXXX (3 spaces)
______________________________ Dr. Robert Jones, Committee Member Professor of XXXX (3 spaces)
___________________________________ Dr. Richard Roe, Committee Member Associate Professor of XXXX (3 spaces)
___________________________________ Dr. Margaret Reno, Committee Member Assistant Professor of XXXX (3 spaces)
___________________________________ Dr. Samuel Johnson, Outside Reader Professor of XXXX University of XXXXX [SAMPLE APPROVAL SHEET NUMBER TWO. The margins for this approval sheet must be as follows: left margin 1½ inches, right margin 1 inch, top margin 2½ inches.]
Doe, John. Thin-layered chromatographic analysis of amino-acid derivatives. (2 spaces)
This thesis, submitted by John Doe for Departmental Honors in (your department), has been approved by the Honors Committee. (3 spaces)
__ ______________________ Dr. Lisa Lewis, Honors Director (3 spaces)
_____ ____________________________ Dr. Royal Ward,Vice President for Academic Affairs
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